Star Wolf: FarOff Dreams
by sfaostTrack20
Summary: Takes place after Assault, Star Wolf has descended into a life of petty crime in order to survive, but Wolf dreams of going legit. Things change drastically for the team after they decide to take an unusual hostage. Wolf/Original Character. Story is M/M.
1. The Hostage

In case you missed the warning earlier, this story includes male/male romance and implied sexual content.

I do not own any part of StarFox including characters and scenarios. The character of Zack and the events of this story is an original character of my own creation.

CHAPTER ONE:  
THE HOSTAGE

"That was a quite a successful mission!" exclaimed Leon, as he slid out of his Wolfen cockpit and landed silently on the hangar floor.  
"Yes it was, this paid out much better than we expected" came the voice of the Panther from behind him as he jumped from his own Wolfen. The feline glanced in the direction of Wolf's ship, expecting him to say something in agreement. But the lupine hopped out of the cockpit without so much as a grunt of acknowledgement. Panther's heart sank a little. Wolf, their once lively leader, had fallen into a bit of a depression since they had accepted their fate as outlaws, and began to communicate less and less with his teammates. He mostly kept to his quarters during downtime, and during their "missions" ("heists" more accurately) he would only say as much as he had to. Panther knew that the reason for this behavior was mainly due Wolf's dream that the team would one day be free and no longer have to constantly run from the law. Unfortunately, going legit at this point seemed nigh impossible. He understood the lupine's reasoning, but for cripe's sake, Wolf was their leader! The least he could do was check in on them once in a while. Instead, the job of finding "missions" was left to Leon.  
The team had to be extremely careful nowadays, as they were some of the most wanted men in the Lylat system. Their heists had to be small enough to escape notice of the Cornerian Army, but bring enough money for them to live on. They usually got supplies at Sargasso, but they found themselves less and less welcome there as many of the usual crowd thought they might bring the entire army with them. Recently, they found themselves having to pay their way in and didn't have much left over for the essentials. Things were becoming harder and harder on the team and their lack of leadership wasn't helping the matter.  
Panther watched as Wolf practically sprinted past them to head to his quarters. He was about to call out to the lupine, but Leon caught him and just said "let him go sulk if he wants to, we don't need him" coldly. "Besides, we need to get to the controls and move this hunk of junk before we're discovered." Panther's heart sunk even more as he followed Leon to the bridge.

"Wow, this should be enough to get us back into Sargasso for sure! If they try to stop us again, we'll just flash them a few hundred credits. If they still don't like it, they can taste hot plasma." Leon said, going over their earnings one more time. He had originally expected the bank job to yield a lot less cash, but the bank held way more than he ever imagined. Of course, the team knew in the back of their minds that because the bank had so much, they might catch the attention of the highest authorities. That also came coupled with the constant fear that soon the government would make the conversion to entirely digital monetary exchange, making life that much harder on the three. Leon and Panther tried to push these thoughts away most of the time, though they could not say the same for Wolf, as neither of them knew what Wolf was thinking at all anymore.  
"Warning!" sounded the voice of the mothership's onboard computer, along with the siren and the flashing red 'WARNING' on the front screen of the bridge. Leon and Panther looked up to see what it was, but there was no indication. All they had to go on was the arrow pointing forward and the words 'ahead and enclosing' underneath the 'WARNING' on the screen.  
"WHAT IS THAT RACKET?!" Wolf yelled as he came bursting in unexpectedly.  
"The hell if I know!" Leon yelled back. "And why would you care anyway? You don't care about anything that happens around here!" he shot at Wolf.  
"I can't hear myself think with that damned racket!" Wolf spat out as he entered further into the bridge to examine the screen.  
"The screen won't give any indication as to what it's warning against" Panther cut in, trying to break up the argument. "All it says is 'ahead and enclosing.'"  
"Yes, I can see that. Try and get as many views of the surrounding area as you can."  
Leon grudgingly pushed a few keys on the console and many views of the area around the ship came up on the screen. "There seems to be a bit of wreckage from a battle or something" Leon said as he examined the screen, "But judging from how far the carnage has spread out and how small the pieces are, it took place ages ago. And the pieces aren't nearly big enough to damage the ship. I don't get it, the computer wouldn't warn for something like this. It must be malfunctioning. Computer, is this what you warned against?"  
"Negative" the computer responded. "One life form detected ahead."  
Wolf stepped up behind Leon and looked up on the screen. "You mean a ship?" he asked.  
"Negative. There are no ships ahead. However there is one life form detected."  
Wolf was at a loss for words. The lupine looked at his comrades to find they were just as puzzled as he was. He asked the computer "How is that possible? How could someone survive the vacuum of space?"  
The screen focused on the view directly ahead and zoomed in on the silhouette of a figure which slowly became illuminated as they approached. "Subject only shows very small signs of life. There is no heartbeat or breathing. However, there is large amount of frozen gas surrounding the subject." Upon closer inspection, Wolf found the "subject" to be a young furless with his skin tinged blue wearing an outdated Cornerian military uniform. The figure appeared to be male, and he was surrounded by what looked like water vapor. He figured this was the frozen gas the computer had mentioned.  
"Wait, are you saying that…" Leon started.  
Panther looked at Leon with an inquiring expression. "What is it Leon?" he asked.  
"Yeah, what could it possibly be, oh knower of all things?" Wolf said rudely, accompanied by an eye roll.  
"Well," Leon responded, shooting Wolf a glare, "if this person was involved in the fight that caused all the wreckage, I suppose it's possible that he could've taken a shot to one of his fuel or oxygen tanks that just broke open the tank but didn't ignite the gas. If that happened, the gas would freeze in the extreme cold of space. If the gas froze around him, then he could possibly be in a state of suspended animation…"  
Wolf scoffed at this theory. "That's impossible!" he said looking away. Leon glared daggers at the back of his head.  
"Well the computer said he's still sustaining trace amounts of life, how would _you_ explain it?!" the angry chameleon yelled.  
Panther once again attempted to break up the argument by speaking up. "I think Leon's right about this one Wolf…" he said.  
Leon turned back to the console and sighed. "In any case, we've wasted enough time here. Let's get as far away from this place as we can."  
Wolf spun around to stare at Leon "What do ya mean? We can't just leave him out here! The computer said he's still alive!"  
Leon stared back at the lupine and asked in an angered tone "Pray tell, Mr. Leader, how on Earth could we benefit from stopping the ship and picking that poor sucker up? It would only make us lose time that we can't afford to lose."  
Wolf was speechless. How could anyone be this cruel? This heartless? He started to reply "But, he…he's…"  
"Wait just a second!" Leon exclaimed, wearing the distinctive look of a chameleon with a particularly devious idea crossing his mind. "Maybe we _could_ use him to our advantage. This wreckage is old, so he's clearly been out here a long time. That, and his uniform is outdated. He seems to have been a member of the Cornerian Army, and he's probably been out here so long they've presumed him to be dead. I wonder how much they would pay to get him back alive…All we have to do is keep it covert and this could pay out immensely."  
"Fine then." Wolf responded, exasperated. He hated the idea of taking a hostage, but at least they weren't just going to leave him out there. "I'll be in my quarters, let me know when you've got him."  
An evil grin crossed Leon's face. "Where do you think you're going? You're the one taking the cargo ship out to get him."  
"WHAT?! Why me?" Wolf yelled back.  
"Wasn't picking him up _your_ bright idea? Come on, when are you gonna take charge 'Oh Fearless Leader'" he replied, his grin growing even more sinister.  
"FINE!" Wolf shot back. He then stormed out of the bridge towards the hangar, his hatred of Leon growing immensely.


	2. Awakening

CHAPTER TWO:  
AWAKENING

Wolf slowly moved his fighter closer to the frozen furless, attached to the back of his Wolfen was the cargo trailer that was usually used for taking supplies back to the Great Wolf from Sargasso. When he came to what he thought was close enough to the soon-to-be hostage, he radioed Leon.  
"Is this close enough?" the lupine asked.  
"Yeah, that should be fine. Now you're sure you turned off the artificial gravity in the trailer, right?"  
"Yes, god dammit, I'm sure. You've asked me that damn question like a thousand times and I've told you every time that I'M SURE!"  
Panther's voice came over the radio "Stop arguing, both of you. Wolf, this is going to need intense concentration on your part, so I suggest you calm down."  
"Right, whatever" grumbled Wolf. "So now I just turn this around and try and get him in the trailer without bumping him to hard. Correct?"  
"Correct" Leon responded. "Just remember to take your time."  
Wolf smirked. "Weren't you the one who, just a few minutes ago, ranted on about how we couldn't waste time?" he asked in a mocking tone.  
"Well if you rush it and he ends up shattering into a million pieces, _all_ our time will have been wasted."  
Wolf frowned. Leon had made a valid point. He opened the hatch on the cargo trailer, turned the ship around until the open hatch was facing their cargo, and began to apply reverse thrusters slowly and carefully. When he was sure that he had the furless completely in the trailer, he closed the hatch and began heading back towards the Great Wolf's hangar.

When the airlock had sealed, Wolf opened his cockpit and hopped down. After a few minutes he saw Leon and Panther hurriedly heading towards his Wolfen. When they reached his position the three of them went about carefully detaching the trailer. When it was on the hangar floor, Leon went to the trailer's controls set it up to heat the inside to 24 degrees Celsius.  
"Now one of two things could happen" Leon told the other two. "It depends on what kind of gas he froze in. If it was oxygen, it should turn to gas pretty quickly and he'll be fine. His cells may be a little dehydrated, but that's nothing we can't fix."  
"What will happen if it's not oxygen?" asked Panther.  
"Well," Leon continued, "the only other thing he could've frozen in, other than oxygen, would be the fuel. It's a lot less likely, considering the chances of it _not_ exploding when the tank was hit are a lot slimmer-"  
"Wait," interrupted Wolf, "won't he suffocate when the fuel turns into a gas?"  
"Don't interrupt me!" Leon snapped. "He won't even make it that far. The fuel will take a lot longer to become gaseous, and while the fuel is in liquid form, his dehydrated cells will suck too much of the liquid in and burst. He'll be reduced to a pile of mush."  
"Oh god!" Panther exclaimed as he winced. "Let's hope that does not happen."  
They waited a bit longer until the controls indicated that all the contents of the cargo trailer had reached room temperature. "The moment of truth" said Leon. He pressed a few buttons to reactivate the artificial gravity within the trailer and open the hatch. As the inside of the trailer slowly came into view, so did the cargo – all in one piece. His skin was no longer blue, but extremely pale. He also wasn't breathing. "Someone grab a med kit now!" Leon shouted. "We have to resuscitate him!" Wolf grabbed the kit from his Wolfen, sprinted back around to the trailer, and got to work. He lifted the furless' head, put the breathing apparatus over his mouth, and began squeezing air into his lungs. He then started chest compressions with his other hand. Just when Wolf thought the poor guy was surely dead, he took a sharp, raspy intake of breath and began breathing somewhat normally. The lupine reached over to his wrist to check his pulse. After a while, he found a slow, but steady heartbeat.  
"Excellent work Wolf!" Panther said happily, patting the lupine on the back.  
"Yes, yes, good job, gold star, whatever, we need to get him to the infirmary now."  
"Well, well, well Leon, I thought you didn't care about this guy" Wolf smirked.  
"I don't. I _do_ care about the fact that we put way too much effort to _not_ get our hostage. Besides, we could make enough money off of him to be set for life."  
"Whatever." Wolf said as he hoisted their prisoner over his shoulder and hauled him to the infirmary. When the prisoner was safely on the bed, he left him in the care of Leon and headed back towards his quarters.

After rehydrating the furless and getting him into a stable condition. Leon left the infirmary and went back to the bridge. When he got there, he saw Panther at the controls, and no Wolf. _Typical_ he thought. "Hey Panther, did you already activate the autopilot?"  
"Yes, I already activated it." replied Panther.  
"You used the coordinates I recorded earlier?"  
"Indeed I did."  
"Good, I'm tired. Gonna head to my room. There should be an alert when the prisoner regains consciousness. Come get me when he's awake." Leon left the bridge and headed back towards his quarters.

Zack awoke to the sound of a sequence of mechanical beeps. He tried to open his eyes, but it was far too bright. The first thing he noticed was that he was sore all over. He couldn't move his arms or legs immediately, but when he regained mobility, he noticed he was strapped down rather tightly. When he finally got the courage to try opening his eyes again, he found he couldn't see anything. Was he just disoriented or was he blind? He couldn't tell. In fact, he couldn't tell much of anything. He tried to sort his thoughts, but he was so sore, the pain was making it hard to focus. He hoped it would go away soon.

"The subject in the infirmary has regained consciousness" came the voice of the computer, rather loudly. Panther, who had started to doze off, nearly fell backwards off his chair when he heard it. He sat back up, shook himself a bit, and got up to head to Leon's quarters. He left the bridge and was about to head down the hallway to Leon, but instead decided to pay a visit to Wolf first. When he knocked on the door, he was immediately greeted with a "Buzz off!" from the lupine inside.  
Panther tried to open the door from the outside panel but found it locked. "Wolf, the prisoner is awake."  
"Why should I care?" Wolf responded lazily.  
"Well, you are the leader. You should probably be the one to inform him of his situation" Panther reasoned.  
"Leon can handle it" came the muffled voice of Wolf.  
"Wolf," Panther said with a concerned tone, "You want to leave the poor guy alone with Leon?"  
There was no response for a good while before, much to Panther's surprise, the door slid open. "Yeah, I guess you're right" said Wolf, as he brushed past Panther and headed off to the infirmary. Panther smiled a little and headed off to get Leon.

Zack heard what he thought was a door slide open and footsteps. "Hey," sounded a voice, "You awake?"  
The voice was deep, a little gruff, and obviously belonged to a man. "Do…you mean me?" Zack asked slowly.  
"No, the other furless strapped to the bed"  
"I can't see anything." Zack told the voice.  
"Oh, sorry." Though short, it sounded genuine. "Um, you've probably just got temporary blindness or something. It should go away. What's your name?" the voice asked.  
"It's Zack. Zack Bruyevski." Zack told the voice. "Could you tell me where I am?"  
"That's of no concern to you." This time it was from a different voice. It also sounded male, though it was severely higher-pitched than the other and also quite a bit more raspy. The voice came again "All you need to know is that you're our prisoner."  
"Prisoner?!" shouted Zack. "What have I done?"  
"We'll be asking the questions here" said the harsher voice.  
"Lay off him, he hasn't done anything!" yelled the deeper voice.  
"Regardless," said the harsh voice "he's our prisoner. You said your name was Zack Bruyevski, correct? Well then Mr. Bruyevski, how old are you and what year is it?"  
"I'm 18, and…" Zack thought for a second before continuing "it's 14356. Why?"  
"Thank you. That is all for now. When you are fully recovered, you will be taken to the brig."  
Zack heard footsteps that grew fainter and fainter until they were no longer audible. He heard the deeper voice say "I think it's only fair that I tell you the year is really 14380. You've been in suspended animation for 24 years.  
"WHAT!?!" screamed Zack.  
"Whoa, calm down there" said the voice. "We found you amoung the wreckage of what looked like a battle that took place a long time ago. Were you in some sort of battle before you ended up here?"  
Zack thought back for a second. "Yeah, I…I think so. I remember being in a fight before I woke up here." He was still trying to process what the voice had just told him.  
"Well, we think a shot hit your oxygen tank, but the tank didn't blow. Instead it leaked and the extreme cold of space froze the oxygen around you and you ended up frozen as well" the voice explained.  
Zack thought about what he said when something hit him. "Um, can you tell me what happened to the population of Zoness Epsilon?" he asked, somewhat nervously.  
The voice was silent for a while before it said "Wasn't that the fifth moon of Zoness that used to have a really big mining colony? If I remember correctly, the whole colony got wiped out by a pandemic. I think Corneria sent a shipment of enough vaccine to get rid of it, but the convoy got ambushed by pirates or something. The next shipment was too late. I seem to remember there being a survivor of the convoy, but I'm not sure. That was a long time ago though, I was pretty young when it happened. I'm surprised I remember that much…  
Zack was silent for a bit. "…Oh. Thanks for…telling me."  
"Are you okay?" the voice asked.  
"Yeah, I'll…I'll be alright" Zack responded.  
"Well, I'm gonna head back to my quarters" the voice told him. "By the way, I'm Wolf. I'm uh…I'm sorry for this…situation." Zack heard footsteps and a door sliding shut. He cried for a little bit before finally falling back to sleep.

Wolf headed back towards his room. He really felt bad for Zack. He could tell something about the news of Zoness Epsilon really upset him. Also, he was being imprisoned for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He decided he would go see him again tomorrow morning, he figured the least he could do was a little explaining.


	3. The Brig

Zack awoke to the soft and continuous "beep" of the machine keeping track of his vitals. He tried opening his eyes, but the light above him was too much and his eyes had not yet adjusted. He was sure of something though: he could see. He was relieved, once his eyes had adjusted to the light, to find that the blindness he was experiencing before he fell asleep was only temporary, and it didn't seem that his vision was damaged or impaired either. He swallowed, and noticed how parched his throat was. He looked around the room in search of something to quench his thirst. The room he was in had the distinct look of a standard mothership infirmary, not unlike those he had seen in his later years of Cornerian Flight Academy training. Some of the machines, though appearing different then he remembered, he could identify. The others, he had no idea what their function was. Some of them looked like they could be scanning devices or intravenous apparatuses, but he couldn't be sure. He spent a long moment trying to figure out what the strange machines were, when the full gravity of the events of last night hit him. 24 years had gone by without him, 24 entire years. That meant that there had probably been numerous breakthroughs in modern medicine since the last time he had set foot inside an infirmary or hospital, which explained why he didn't recognize many of the machines.  
Zack lay there and tried to process the information the guy named Wolf had told him. Due to pure luck, he had managed to survive in space for 24 years in suspended animation. Meanwhile, Zoness Epsilon's population had been entirely wiped out. He felt a pang of guilt and tried to sit up. He then noticed he was strapped down at the wrists and ankles to the infirmary bed. He had forgotten, until now, one of the key details of his situation-he was a prisoner. He felt even worse. Then he heard what sounded like a door slide open to his left. He glanced over in the direction of the door to see a grey lupine figure standing in the doorway.  
"Oh good, you're awake. I didn't want ta hafta wake you myself. Can you see?" Zack instantly recognized the lupine to be Wolf from his voice. He was tall, and had a streak of white fur going from his forehead to the back of his head in between his ears, the colour of which matched his muzzle, eyebrows, and the tip of his tail, which Zack noticed had a slight split at the end. The most obvious distinguishing feature of Wolf's was the cybernetic eye covering his left eye socket, which glowed blue. His clothes weren't too out of the ordinary: a denim jacket covered in patches of logos for what easily could've been metal bands or mercenary groups. The jacket had no sleeves, and underneath was a black jumpsuit that quietly showed off how well-built he was, without shoving it in the face of the onlooker. He wore a spiked collar and shoulder pads, as well as heavy combat boots. To his right side hung a holstered blaster attached to his belt, with a decorative chain connected to the front of a belt. The belt in question was black leather and had a gold buckle of a fierce-looking wolf that lay dead-center of his waist. He was indeed intimidating, but not frightening, and he seemed to Zack to have the air of a man who cared more than he let on. He stepped further into the room, the door closing behind him, and dropped into a stool at Zack's bedside.  
"Yeah, I can. You're Wolf, right?" Zack asked, rolling as best he could to face him.  
"Yup, that's me. Wolf O'Donnell, leader of team Star Wolf" he replied with as much pride as he could muster, though he didn't sound very convincing. "I thought I'd come check up on ya. Ya know, make sure you're not dead and all that."  
"Thanks a lot" Zack said with a sarcastic smirk, though the appreciation was genuine. "Would you mind getting me a glass of water or something? I'm really thirsty."  
"Yeah, o' course." He inspected a few of the cabinets in the room before finding a small metal cup. He took the cup over to the sink to the right of Zack's bed, filled it with tap water, and held it out to him.  
"Umm…" Zack stared at the metal cup "you're gonna have to tip it into my throat or something, I'm a little tied up at the moment."  
"Oh, right. Sorry." Wolf looked away, an ashamed look on his face. Zack opened his mouth and Wolf reached out and tilted the cup towards Zack until the water slowly poured into his throat. Zack swallowed, and immediately felt quite a bit relieved. Wolf continued to stare downward.  
"Look, I'm…I'm really sorry about…that. The whole 'prisoner' thing. I wish we didn't have to keep you like this…but…well…" Wolf said, keeping his eyes on the floor. Zack could tell he Wolf telling the truth, at least about the apology. He seemed to be deeply troubled by the idea. When he looked back up, Zack asked  
Look, you've probably got your reasons that you'd rather not tell me. But, do you think you could at least tell me why I'm being kept prisoner?"  
"Well yeah, I guess so-" Wolf started when he was interrupted by a harsher, higher-pitched voice that Zack also recognized from the previous night (at least what he assumed was the previous night; there was no way of telling in the infirmary). The voice belonged to a short and sinister-looking chameleon in a blue flight suit carrying a pile of green clothes.  
"That won't be necessary, Wolf. Prisoner, you do not need to know why you are being imprisoned, you simply need to know that you are just that. Since your blindness has worn off, you're hydrated, and your vitals are stable, you will be moved from the infirmary to the brig. You probably won't be able to walk just yet, let alone stand, but Wolf will help you into your clothes and to your cell. I will go prep the brig for your arrival," the chameleon stated very businesslike. He walked over to one of the counters, dropped the pile of clothes, and left the infirmary, the door sliding closed behind him.  
After a long silence, Wolf broke it by saying "That's Leon. He's not really a…people person."  
Zack responded "Gee, I hadn't noticed. Ya know, you said you're the leader of this team, but it seems like he's calling the shots..."  
"I most certainly am the leader of this team!" Wolf said defensively, rising a little bit out of his chair. He regained his composure and sat back down on the stool. "At least, I used to be. My teammates and I…well, we don't get along as well as we used to. Leon's sorta taken over the team since then, he calls most of the shots 'round here," he told Zack in a bit of a sad tone.  
"If you guys don't get along, why doncha just split up?" Zack asked.  
Wolf sighed "Unfortunately, s'not that simple. But anyway, I'm rambling here. Not like I wouldn't love to tell ya, but we better get you dressed and down to the cell before Leon gets all impatient and throws you down there himself."  
It was then that Zack finally looked down at himself and realized that he was in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts that didn't even belong to him. He blushed and turned away from Wolf, trying as best he could to shy away with what little room for movement he had. "C'mon, don't be like that, s'no big deal, at least you're not naked," Wolf said with a chuckle, which only made Zack blush even more. It didn't help matters when he realized that _someone_ on the ship had to have seen him naked to change him into the boxers he had on.  
Wolf got up off the stool he was sitting on and untied Zack's wrist and ankle restraints. He tried sitting up, but got dizzy and immediately lied back down. "Easy there slugger, it's been quite a while since you've used your muscles, you probably won't be in top shape any time soon." Wolf went over to the pile of clothes Leon had left, sorted out the individual articles, and laid them out at the foot of the Zack's bed. "We went ahead and cleaned your uniform because we already know it fits you." Zack nodded, and Wolf got straight to work helping him into his clothes. Every time Wolf's fur brushed against his bare skin, he blushed even deeper, until finally his uniform was on all the way-complete with hat and boots. "Well don't you look official" Wolf said jokingly. "Alright, let's get you down to the brig."  
Wolf slid Zack to the edge of the bed and sat him up. He took Zack's right arm and tossed it over his shoulder, and hoisted him by the waist onto the ground. As soon as Zack's feet hit the ground, he nearly fell over, but Wolf caught him instantly. Wolf carried him to the door, which opened automatically, and they began the journey towards Zack's cell. After what seemed like an endless maze of hallways, they finally arrived at the Brig. Leon was waiting for them, and as soon as he saw the two, he immediately spat in his shrill voice "Wolf, you idiot, you didn't cuff him?"  
Wolf glared up at Leon "Look at him Leon, do you really think he's going anywhere on his own? Let's just get him in here!" Leon returned the glare, then turned to the keypad to the side of a door with a tiny window of very thick glass. After keying in the code, the door swung inward (unlike the other doors that he had encountered that slid open either automatically or with the press of a button). Wolf helped Zack into the cell and on to the cell bed, which was a bit more comfortable then the hospital bed, but not by much. The cell was larger than Zack thought, but a bit too white for his tastes. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all tiled almost blindingly white. In the back of the cell rested the bed jutting out from the wall, the toilet, and the water fountain. Opposite the bed, the fountain, and the toilet was an uncomfortable-looking gunmetal bench. About half way through the cell were several holes on either side of the room, as well as the floor and ceiling. Zack guessed these were for the electric bars for when a member of the team needed to interrogate the prisoner (which is also what the gunmetal bench was for). Zack slumped against the wall in as much of a sitting position he could muster. Leon keyed in another code and the electric bars activated, but they were different than Zack imagined. Instead of electrically charged metal bars crisscrossing as he had thought would be the case, instead what looked like green lasers emitted from the holes and intersected to form a bright green grid that emitted an audible humming sound. Wolf looked as if he was about to take a seat on the bench, when Leon shouted "Wolf, what are you doing? I need to speak with you and Panther about the prisoner right away!"  
Wolf rolled his eyes at Leon, as Leon headed off in what Zack suspected was the direction of the bridge. Wolf gave Zack a sad look before leaving the room, closing the door, and hitting a key at the console. The laser bars disappeared and the humming stopped. Zack saw several locks on his side of the door that he hadn't noticed before lock into place. Zack, feeling extremely disappointed that he had been left alone, slid into a sleeping position and began to doze off.


	4. From Dreams to Data

"This is the easiest mission ever! I thought once we graduated, we were gonna see some action!" came a male voice from the screen. Zack glanced over at the com screen to his left and was met with a blurred image of his teammate.  
"Calm down ------, it's only our first mission." Zack heard himself reply, though for some reason, his voice became muffled when he said his teammate's name, and he couldn't make out the name. "Besides, this is really important. If this convoy doesn't reach Zoness Epsilon, the entire colony will die out."  
"Yeah, whatever, I just want this to be over with," came the annoyed voice to his left. "What about you, -------, you've been silent this whole time," Zack's teammate directed his comment at the pilot of the ship to his right. A blank com screen appeared to Zack's right, but the face it showed was blurred, just like his other teammate.  
"I'm not here to make friends," came a lazy voice, "I'm just here to finish the job and get paid." And with that, his com screen disappeared.  
"Nice guy," said the annoyed teammate, as his com screen disappeared as well. Zack stared off into space. He could see the fifth moon of Zoness come into view, light blue air shield of the mining colony barely visible. He glanced up, and saw the cargo ship carrying the precious vaccine to the outbreak that threatened all life on the colony. He decided to go to for one more circle around the ship. He pressed the thruster control gently forward, and then downward, his Cornerian Fighter pulling ahead of the cargo ship and gliding upward to come to rest upside-down above what he and his teammates were charged to defend. As he righted himself and began to bring his ship to face forward once more, he noticed something off in the distance. He looked down at his radar, but it hadn't picked anything up. As he stared off in the direction of the unidentified object, hot plasma shot from whatever it was and grazed his wing. He took evasive action, while flipping the case over the forced alarm, and slammed down on the red button, a com screen for each of his teammates appearing on screen.  
"We're under attack! Scramble! Remember, the cargo ship takes priority!" Zack yelled as com screens disappeared and the screen directly in front of him zoomed in and locked on to the three approaching ships. Pirates. Zack pushed forward on his thrusters and fired several shots at the first shim, the first of which took down the pirate fighter's deflector shields, the rest catching the wing. The damaged ship began leaving a trail of smoke behind its wing, and lagged slightly behind the other two ships. As Zack approached the pirates at high speed, they also began to scramble. Zack took a hard right and looped back around to try and lock on to the damaged ship. His targeting computer found the damaged ship off to the right and slightly above him. Zack pulled the thrusters back to slow down so he could fire several more shots at the damaged ship. Zack had hoped the shots would hit the pirate's wing so that he would only force a landing, but the hot plasma landed dead on target and the ship burst into flames in an impressive display of fireworks. Zack felt a pang of guilt, but it disappeared when his friendlier teammate's com screen opened up to his right.  
"How did our radar not pick this up? A jammer would have to be decently close to be effective, and they were way off in the distance!" the blurred face shouted at Zack.  
Zack looked at blur and barked "I don't know, but there's only two now, let's take 'em down and ask questions later!" After the com screen closed, he saw a bright yellow and red warning message flash on the screen directly in front of him. It read 'WARNING, MISSILE LOCKED ON' "Shit!" Zack spat and took immediate evasive action. Despite his best efforts, Zack couldn't shake the missile that loomed over him. Just when Zack thought it was over, his teammate shot the missile down with three well-placed shots. The missile detonated behind him, and Zack managed to escape unharmed. His teammate's com screen opened once more, and Zack breathed "thanks, ---------"  
His blurry teammate began to reply "No prob-" when the sound of plasma against metal could be heard in the background. "What are you….no!" was all Zack heard before he saw his teammate's explosion behind him.  
"NOOOOOO!" Zack screamed, as his head darted back and forth, looking for the offending ship. When he found what he thought must've been the dirty bastard who killed his friend, he steered his ship in the direction of the pirate fighter, and just as he locked on, he felt shots from behind him. The screen in front of him showed the rear view, and Zack found his attacker to be, not a pirate ship, but his one remaining anti-social teammate. Before he could take action, he saw the final flash of plasma felt the impact and-

Zack bolted upright and took in is surroundings. He was sitting on a small bed, jutting out of the wall in a bright white room. The Brig of Wolf's team's mothership. That was all he knew about where he was. He was drenched in sweat. The brig of the ship was not as temperature-conditioned as the rest of the ship, and the heat of the room combined with the panic of his dream made him feel as if he were submerged in boiling water. He moved so that he was sitting on the edge of his bed, and removed his boots, socks, hat, and jacket. It was a great relief to be out of his heavier clothes, but he couldn't deny that the he was still burning up in the brig's heat. He gathered up his excess clothing and dumped it on the metal bench opposite the bed. His light, cotton undershirt allowed him to cool off his upper body, but his heavy military pants caused his lower body to bake in the heat. Zack hesitated. He was apprehensive to remove his pants, seeing as he had nothing under them other than the new boxers that had found their way on to him sometime during the previous night (or what seemed like night to him). After a while though, the heat got the best of him, and he peeled them off, placing them with the rest of the clothes he had removed earlier on the metal bench. He returned to the back of the blindingly white room and took a long, drawn-out drink from the water fountain. He returned to his bed and lay back down, his stomach gurgling in the process. He then realized how incredibly hungry he was, and wondered when he had eaten his last meal...

"Alright, so I got all records on this Zack guy" Leon told his teammates as they gathered on the bridge. Wolf dropped into one of the seats and looked up at Leon, who was standing by the controls.  
"You know…" Wolf said in a concerned tone, "you shouldn't go digging through Cornerian military records, that's a good way to get our asses caught."  
"Oh, calm down dumbass, these are the old-as-hell records that no one even cares about, let alone keeps an eye on. They might as well not even be there for as much as they're used." Leon said sarcastically.  
"Guys, let's try not to argue too much here, there are more pressing matters," came the voice of Panther, who was leaning against the wall over by the door to the rest of the ship.  
"Panther's right," agreed Leon. "Anyway, the record said this Zack guy graduated the Cornerian Flight Academy at the end of 14355," Leon said, heading over to one of the secondary control consoles and scrolling through the data that was on-screen. "A few months later, he and two teammates were sent on their first official mission for the Cornerain Air Force. The mission was to guard the cargo ship carrying a shipment of vaccine for the pandemic that had infected the entire mining colony on the moon of Zoness Epsilon."  
Wolf immediately understood why this news had saddened Zack yesterday, and he couldn't help but feel bad for the poor guy. "That explains why…" Wolf began, when Leon cut him off.  
"Explains why what?" the chameleon demanded, an annoyed look on his face as he stared intently at Wolf.  
"Oh, nothing…" Wolf's ears flattened and he sank deeper into his seat. Leon would be angry if he found out Wolf had actually been talking to their prisoner.  
Leon sighed "Right, whatever. Anyway, the convoy was attacked by pirates, which, according to what little flight records they could recover from the lone survivor of the incident, managed to ambush the convoy completely undetected. Somehow the radar got jammed, even though the pirates were nowhere near close when they were discovered to send a jamming signal, and there were no other ships or space stations in the area during the attack. There were only three pirate fighters, one of which was taken out at the start of the battle, so the military fighters guarding the cargo should've been able to handle them, but somehow the pirates took the upper hand, eliminating two of the three military fighters. I don't think I have to tell you that one of those two was our current prisoner. The third fighter pilot survived the ambush. By the time they had sent out another shipment of the vaccine-this time with double the escorts-it was too late."  
Panther stood up straight and looked at Leon. "That's…awful," the feline said with a sad expression. Wolf was completely silent.  
"Yeah, but guys get this:" Leon said with a bit of a smirk. "The lone survivor of the convoy…was Pigma."  
Wolf sat bolt upright. "That bastard!?" he yelled. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was the one jamming the radar, that slimy pig."  
Leon looked back at the records and scrolled through the data. "It says here that he was hailed as a hero by Air Force officials and allowed an honorable discharge due to 'extreme mental anguish and/or trauma caused by accident or disaster'. Well, we all know what happened to _him_ after that. Anyway, the prisoner hasn't had any food since we unfroze him, he's probably starving. We need him alive. Wolf, since you seem so friendly with the prisoner, you bring it to him." Leon walked over to a counter and picked up a tray of prepared food-if you could call it food. It consisted of stale bread and watered-down soup. Wolf made a mental note that next time, _he_ would have to be the one preparing Zack's meals. Leon handed Wolf the tray, and headed back to review his records. "As soon as we get to our hiding spot, we'll deliver our message to Corneria. This is going to have us set for life!" Leon said with a sinister grin. Wolf sighed and walked through the lone door, and headed out towards the brig.


	5. An Explanation

Zack looked up when he heard the door to the brig slide open. It was wolf, carrying a tray of food. He walked over to the bench and plopped down, the tray on his lap. "Shouldn't you put up the bars?" Zack asked with an inquisitive look on his face.  
"Nah, its fine. 'Sides, how am I supposed to give you your food if the bars are up?"  
"I think you're just supposed to put the tray down and leave. That's probably what Leon expects you to do," Zack said, a bit amused.  
"Yeah, well, screw Leon, he doesn't have to know," Wolf said with a bit of a growl.  
"You mean there aren't security cameras in here?" Zack asked with disbelief.  
Wolf chuckled "No, there aren't. When we bought this hunk-of-junk, we only had money enough for bare minimum security functions. Most of the stuff we have now got added in later, including security cameras, and we only really put them in places we needed them: the bridge, the flight deck, cargo holds, storage rooms, and what used to be Pigma's room."  
Zack gave Wolf a confused expression "You didn't think it was important to have security cameras in the brig?"  
"Well, to be honest, we never used it, and never planned to really. I think we used it for storage once, but I can't even be sure of that. You're the first prisoner we've ever had," Wolf replied.  
Zack thought for a moment. "Well, what if I tried to attack you."  
Wolf chuckled again. "Honestly, I don't think that's very likely. But even if you did, do you really think you could take me?" Zack knew Wolf was probably right there. "Besides, I'm the one with the blaster," Wolf brought his hand to rest on the weapon. "Now are you do you want this food or are you just going to keep arguing?"  
"OH GOD YES." Zack dove over to the tray, knelt in front of Wolf, and tore into the bread. About halfway through the bread, he grabbed the bowl of soup and guzzled down the soup. The food had virtually no flavor, but he didn't care, he was just glad he had something to fill his stomach.  
Wolf sat there, mouth slightly agape. After Zack had finished he smirked and said "Hungry are we?"  
Zack looked up and, blushed, and went back to his bed. He sat down on and looked up at Wolf. "Thanks…" he muttered and slumped back against the wall.  
"Something wrong?" Wolf asked, though he knew it was a dump question. It was Zack's turn to laugh, though it wasn't so much of a chuckle as it was a snort.  
Zack sat up and said with a touch of sarcasm "Well, let's see. I failed my first mission as an official Cornerian pilot. As a result, an entire colony was wiped out. As if that's not enough, I got frozen for 24 years, only to be thawed out and turned into someone's prisoner, even though I've never even done anything! No, nothing's wrong, everything's peachy." Zack found himself yelling. He blushed slightly and slid into a lying-down position on his bed. He hadn't meant to yell at his only real company, but the whole situation made him angry.  
Wolf stared at the floor. After a while, he got up, strolled over to Zack's bed, and sat on the edge. "Look, I don't like this anymore than you do. I suppose it won't make things better, but I can at least explain why you're here."  
Zack sat back up and looked at Wolf with a stiff expression. "I'm listening."  
"Well…" Wolf began, "Not too long ago, there was a war I got kinda mixed up in. Not too far after the legendary pilot James McCloud's death."  
"James McCloud died!?" Zack interrupted, gaping.  
"Yeah, was killed actually. By a former teammate of mine. Don't worry; we kicked him out ages ago." Wolf was reminded of what he learned earlier and wondered if he should tell Zack or not. He eventually decided against it. "Anyway, his son, a bit of a rival of mine, re-formed Star Fox after his father's death. He ended up on the Cornerian side of the war, and I figured the only way I may get a chance to take him on was to join the other side."  
Zack interrupted Wolf again "Wait, tell me more about this war? Who fought? What was it over?"  
Wolf responded "Right, sorry. Andross, leader of Venom, amassed a pretty large army and challenged Corneria for control of the galaxy. It was pretty clear that he was corrupt and evil, but I was young, and I just wanted a chance to get at Fox. It was a pretty big mistake, and it cost me quite a bit. Anyway, I formed a team, Leon, this guy named Pigma, the one who betrayed and killed James, and then Andross' nephew Andrew. Together, we were probably the strongest team the Venomian army had. We still were no match for Corneria. Of course, our team really hadn't done anything wrong. We were just following orders, we were perfectly willing to accept Cornerian rule. But the universe don't work that way. Regardless of what we had and hadn't done, we...were criminals. Outlaws. We either had to resort to a life of crime to stay alive or give ourselves up. We decided that second option was out of the question. Long story short, teammates came and went. Pigma went rogue and got himself killed, and who knows what the hell happened to Andrew. We were in desperate need of a third member when Panther asked to join. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I wished we hadn't let him because by joining us, he pretty much ruined his life. All I've really wanted was to go legit after the war ended, but it's become increasingly apparent to me lately that that is pretty much impossible. It's funny, a little while ago we even helped Star Fox fight off these malicious aliens called Aparoids, but when all was said and done, no one even remembers. Honestly, I hate this. More than anything. It sucks, ya know? It's gotten even worse recently. We're some of Lylat's most wanted men, so we have to resort to small, petty stuff. Even the people down at Sargasso, an outlaw haven, give us dirty looks because they think we'll bring the whole army with us. We can't leave the system, because the increased border security. The whole thing just sucks." Wolf stared back down at the ground again.  
"So…" Zack said, piecing the things Wolf had told him together "What does that have to do with me?"  
"Well" Wolf looked back up at Zack. When we found you, Leon was ready to just let you be. The only way I could get him to let me pick you up is to suggest using you as…a hostage. Well, I didn't really suggest it, he came up with the idea himself. Still, Leon plans to ransom you back to Corneria for a hefty price."  
"Oh." Zack replied. That's all he could think to say. He still didn't like the situation he was in any more than he had before, but he couldn't hate Wolf for what he had done. Quite the contrary, Wolf had saved his life, and he actually felt grateful. After an uncomfortable silence that seemed to last ages, he managed to mutter a "Thanks."  
Wolf stared at Zack, bewildered. "For what!?"  
Zack looked Wolf in the eyes. "For talking Leon in to picking me up. And for being honest with me. I get that you're just doing this to survive. But I do have one question. If you're the leader of this time, why would you have to talk Leon in to anything? Don't you make decisions?"  
Wolf looked back down at the floor. After another brief silence, he spoke again. "Well, I don't relish this meager existence at all. And it shows. Leon on the other hand, he loves it. He lives for crime, and the criminal lifestyle. After a while, I stopped wanting to plan heists and such and just sort of sat around, kinda depressed. When that happened, he kinda took over. So even though I'm the leader officially, I suppose you could say he's the real brains behind this operation…"  
"Ah," Zack answered. He understood.  
Wolf hopped up. "Speaking of Leon, he's probably wondering where I am. He wouldn't like to find me in here talking to you. I'm sorry, but I gotta go. I'll be back though, and I'll make sure your meals actually taste like something next time." Wolf headed over to the door.  
"Thanks" Zack called after Wolf, and Wolf flashed him a smile before leaving the room. It wasn't a smirk or a cocky grin, but a genuinely warm smile. Zack himself smiled a bit before lying back down on his bed and falling asleep once more.


	6. Visitation

Over the next week or so, as the Great Wolf crept along to their hiding spot to avoid picking up unwanted attention, Wolf and Zack formed a rich friendship. To avoid notice from Leon, Wolf had to shorten their meal-time meetings. To make up for this, Wolf would visit Zack after Panther and Leon had gone to bed. This cut slightly into Wolf's sleep schedule, but he spent most of his free time in his room anyway, so no real harm was done.  
Wolf and Zack talked about everything: from flying, current events, to music, to sports, to food, to their childhood, and everything in between. Zack and Wolf had a bit of trouble relating to one another, not because of their age difference of about 12 years, but mainly because many of the bands, events, TV shows, important figures of the time, etc. all were around/occurred when Wolf was either very young or not even born yet. As a result, much of their time spent together was Zack describing to Wolf the times back when he was young and Wolf catching Zack up on everything that had happened while he was in suspended animation.  
Zack's uniform had since been removed from the room, as Wolf had provided him with old clothes from his own closet to prevent him from wearing the same clothes for too long. The clothes were now too small for Wolf, but they were still a little big on the younger male, who was a bit smaller himself. Zack was a little embarrassed to be wearing someone else's clothing, especially since they did not fit, but he was very glad to not have to wear his hot uniform in the heat of the brig (which was not as temperature controlled as the rest of the ship), and was grateful to Wolf for providing him with lighter clothing to help keep him cool.  
At first, Zack looked forward to Wolf's visits because they were the only break in the monotony of the life of a prisoner, but as time went on, Zack realized the bond that was forming between the two. He was sure that if they were in any other situation, they still would have formed the friendship they held now, and that it wasn't just a result of the circumstances. The one question lingering on his mind, however, was if Wolf was visiting him for the same reason, or only because he felt sorry for him. He decided the only way to know for sure was to ask him.

Zack heard the telltale muffled beeping of a keypad the let him know Wolf was outside his door. He looked up to see Wolf's smiling face as the door slid open. "Hey!" Wolf said as he stepped in, carrying a music player and a set of speakers which he set down on the bench. "I decided to smuggle these in" he pointed to the player and speakers "so you could hear that band I was talking about. You might like them!"  
Zack returned Wolf's smile. "That's really cool…" his expression hardened a bit as he looked down. "But…" he glanced up at wolf "there's something I have to ask you first."  
Wolf looked back over at Zack, his excited, friendly expression turning to one of concern. "Of course, fire away."  
Zack returned his glance to the floor. "I really like talking with you, and I'm glad that you keep coming back to talk with me. You've really become a good friend to me lately. The only thing is, I dunno if you keep coming back because you feel the same way, or if you just feel like you have to…"  
Wolf abandoned the music player and went over to sit next to Zack on the bed. He looked over at Zack, who was still looking at the floor, with a kind and caring look. When Zack brought his gaze back up to Wolf, Wolf smiled and asked "Is that it? Yeah, at first I was visiting because I felt sorry for ya, but I really do fell the same way. Hell, you're the best friend I have 'round this dump. I can talk to you ten times as easily as I could talk to Panther, let alone that crazy bastard Leon."  
Zack perked up significantly. "Really?" he asked.  
"Really." Wolf stated.  
Zack slid over and brought his head to rest on Wolf's shoulder. Wolf was a bit surprised at the gesture at first, but then put his arm around the younger male in a friendly hug. "Thanks" Zack said, "That means a lot."  
After they sat there a while, Wolf shifted a little bit to right, slightly away from Zack. Zack sat up, and saw that Wolf was wearing a bit of a confused expression. "What's wrong Wolf?" Zack asked.  
Wolf looked over at Zack and smiled, and leaned a bit closer towards him. As he looked into Zack's worried eyes, he knew what he had to do. He continued to lean forward and said "Nothing at all."  
Wolf and Zack's lips made contact. Zack was so taken aback, he was almost paralyzed. His wide eyes glanced at the gray lupine who was currently kissing him to find his eyes closed and his expression sincere and passionate. After a while, Zack realized nothing felt more right to him than that moment in time, and began to return the kiss. After what seemed like hours, Wolf broke away and began to speak.  
"Zack, I-" but it was Zack's turn to take hold of the situation. He put his arms around the larger male and pulled Wolf towards him, their lips connecting once more. This time, Zack opened his mouth a bit and allowed the kiss to become even more passionate-more intimate. Soon Wolf put his hands on Zack's shoulders, and gently pushed him down, so that Zack was lying on the bed and Wolf was on top of him, straddling his hips and increasing the intensity of their kiss, breaking away only twice to pull Zack's shirt over his head and to remove his own. The contact of Wolf's fur on his bare skin made Zack blush hard, as his hands roamed over his toned body. Before Zack knew what was happening, the two males were completely unclothed…

Zack woke up to find himself in his prison bed, as usual. This time there was something very unusual though. When Zack became aware of the situation, he discovered that Wolf was in his bed, and that not only was his head resting on Wolf's furry chest, but also that they were locked in a tight embrace-and both were completely naked. It was then that the events of last night all came back to him at once. Zack panicked for a moment, but when Wolf shifted slightly and pulled Zack even closer to himself, he closed his eyes and found himself wishing the moment would never end. After a while however, the gravity of the situation came crashing down like a ton of bricks. Zack nudged Wolf until he began to stir.  
"Wha…whassagoinon?" Wolf muttered incomprehensively. When he opened his eyes and realized where he was, instead of panicking like Zack expected, he just pulled Zack in for a quick kiss, and hugged him tighter. He put his hand on the back of Zack's head and gently pushed his head down into the crook of his neck. "I dunno if you picked up on this yet, but…I love you. I really do. It took me a while to figure out but, I know it for sure. In fact, I've never been more sure of something in my entire life."  
"Wolf…" Zack began, returning the embrace. "I love you too. But you have to get up, what if Leon finds us?"  
Wolf growled slightly, but he knew Zack was right. After a while, he let Zack go and sat up, showing obvious disappointment. He sat there for another moment before he finally said something. "Zack, I'm so sorry."  
Zack was confused, and a bit worried that at any moment he might wake up from the best dream he ever had. "Why's that?"  
There was another period of silence before Wolf replied "Because, this whole situation is terrible. You're our prisoner, our hostage. Even if you weren't, the only thing I can promise you is a criminal's life of stealing and running, and a team that would never accept our love. I finally found the one person I would do anything for and I can't do anything for you!" A few tears began to form in Wolf's eyes. Wolf's eyes shot open when he felt Zack put his arms around Wolf's chest from behind him, his head resting on Wolf's shoulder.  
"It's okay" Zack said softly. "I understand. But you don't need to give me anything. You're enough for me. As long as you're here, everything's fine. But you have to get going now, otherwise it might be too late for both of us."  
Wolf got up, gathering up his clothes. Zack watched him move, silently marveling at the beauty of Wolf's body. When he had returned to a fully clothed state, he moved back towards the bed. He bent down and gave him one more parting kiss. When they finally broke part, Wolf whispered in Zack's ear "I promise I'll come up with something." He then hurried out the door, back toward his quarters, re-locking the brig as he left. He had a sad look on his face, but he flashed Zack a smile through the tiny brig window before.  
Zack gathered up his own clothes-well, the clothes that Wolf had lent him-and returned to his bed, feeling a mixture of elation and disappointment.


End file.
